Jury Selection Begins For Teen

Judge Could Move Trial To Sebring

Almost a year and a half after one of Polk County's most violent crime sprees, attorneys will try Monday to pick a jury for the murder trial of Curtis Shuler, 18, of Haines City.

He is the youngest of three teenagers who were charged with first-degree murder and other crimes during the two days that left two dead and seven injured, including a 10-year-old girl who was shot in the face while lying in a hotel bed.

Shuler and Sylathum Streeter were 16 at the time of the slayings. Victor Lester, the third charged in the crimes, was 17.

All face the death penalty if convicted. Shuler pleaded no contest in May to a single felony count of causing bodily injury before his trial for attempted murder began. He could be sentenced to up to 12 1/2 years in prison.

Shuler and Streeter have asked the court to move the trial to another venue. They attached 80 articles written about the case as proof of how publicity has limited their chance for a fair trial.

Circuit Court Judge Robert A. Young has considered moving the trial to Sebring if he cannot find jurors without knowledge of the case. He has written that an overwhelming majority of 200 potential jurors in Polk County had opinions about the guilt or innocence of Streeter and Shuler.

``The jurors' opinions were almost always derived from news accounts,'' he wrote.

But juries selected for other cases in Sebring were tested for knowledge of the Shuler case, and results were favorable, said officials in Young's office.

Young has issued a gag order preventing prosecutors and defense attorneys from commenting on the case, despite objections by newspapers and attorneys for Shuler and Streeter.

``Witnesses can be located and crimes solved or innocent suspects exonerated, all because of a free press,'' Young wrote in denying a challenge to the gag order. ``But it does not follow that these transcendent values are diminished by restricting the attorneys' public comments about the case two weeks before this trial commences.''

The crimes began on April 26, 1998.

Larry Steven Tyler, 32, of Haines City was shot and killed during an attack near the Grenelefe resort outside Haines City. Both Shuler and Streeter are charged with Tyler's murder.

On April 30, Cathy Boyd survived bullet wounds from another botched carjacking in front of her home near Davenport. And minutes later in Lake Hamilton, police say, the three attempted another carjacking. Kristina Large, a 20-year-old Lake Alfred mother, was shot but escaped with James E. Jackson, 18, of Lake Wales. She died at a nearby Winn-Dixie. Jackson survived his wounds.

About 10 minutes later, Carlos Edward Moody answered the door of his hotel room at John's Resort, 1504 U.S. Highway 27. Reports and witnesses say three gunmen opened fire, injuring Moody and four others, including 10-year-old Vickie Smith. She was hit in the mouth and chest by bullets while lying in bed.

Shuler says he did not fire the shots that killed Tyler on April 26, and says he was dropped off after the first incident on April 30.

If convicted, Shuler could become one of the youngest prisoners on death row.